Mike's Site

Today was a grind, a supposedly short trip from Kingstown, St Vincent to St Lucia. The two eastern Caribbean islands are less than 100 miles apart. My flight with InterCaribbean Airlines was supposed to take 45 minutes. That’s not what happened.

So, at checkin I am given a boarding pass to Barbados and another from there to St Lucia. The flight to Barbados wasn’t direct. After a very late departure, the plane flew south to Grenada where six more passengers boarded. Then it was to Barbados. 

A long layover of about four hours followed and the flight departed at 8 PM, an hour and forty minutes late.

During the wait, I was corresponding with my Airbnb host in St Lucia telling her what had happened and that I was going to be late.

She said she could arrange a ride from Castries where I would land, to Soufriere, a one hour, forty five minute drive. I took her up on the offer and agreed to pay for the ride if I could stop at an ATM.

My host, Jahan, contacted me again saying because I would arrive late she couldn’t find anyone to give me the ride so she and her business partner would pick me up. That was super.

Finally touched down in Castries about 8:45 PM then went through immigration and customs before exiting the terminal building.

I found Jahan’s partner and her and we started south but stopped at a KFC because I told Jahan I hadn’t had lunch or dinner. Jahan’s partner paid for my food which was incredibly nice.

Then, an hour and a half on twisting, hilly, torn up roads at night to Soufriere. What I thought would take a few hours ate my day and part of the evening.

Thank you, Jahan.

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